VISUAL AID TO ASSIST MAKING PURCHASE BY TRACKING KEY PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS

• US 20120047146A1
• Filed: 08/17/2010
• Published: 02/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Balakrishnan, Kannan, Carini, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 8,375,035 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0218 based on score
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

The present invention is directed to methods and systems for assisting users in an ecommerce environment. The method includes displaying a user interface of including products. Each of the products have associated attributes. Each of the associated attributes are displayed in the user interface with an associated selection tool. The method further includes receiving one or more selections of the selection tools indicating selection of one or more of the associated attributes. The one or more selections provide a ranking of each of the selected attributes. For each of the products, the method calculates a real-time score total and displays the real-time score total within the user interface. The calculating includes determining a weighted value for each of the products based on an aggregation of each of the selected associated attributes of the product. Further, the method includes displaying a ranked list of the products based on the determined weighted values of each of the products.

Claims

1. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment, the method comprising:

displaying a user interface of a plurality of products, wherein each of the plurality of products have a plurality of associated attributes, and wherein each of the plurality of associated attributes are displayed in the user interface with an associated selection tool;

receiving one or more selections of the selection tools indicating selection of one or more of the plurality of associated attributes, wherein the one or more selections provide a ranking of each of the selected attributes;

for each of the plurality of products, calculating a real-time score total and displaying the real-time score total within the user interface, wherein the calculating includes;

determining a weighted value for each of the products based on an aggregation of each of the selected plurality of associated attributes of the product; and

displaying a ranked list of the plurality of products based on the determined weighted values of each of the plurality of products.

2. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 1, wherein the selection tool includes a checkbox or a slider.

3. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 2, wherein the checkbox is a binary selection tool, and wherein when toggled, the weighted value score of the product associated with the selected attribute is incremented by one.

4. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 3, wherein the checkbox, when deselected decrements the weighted value score of the product associated with the deselected attribute by one.

5. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 2, wherein the slider provides a sliding scale ranking for the selected attributes.

6. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 5, wherein the slider varies the weighted value of the associated attribute based on the relative position of the slider.

7. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 2, wherein the selection tool is configured to be positioned in relation to each of the plurality of attributes for each of the plurality of products.

8. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 1, further comprising logging selections of the plurality of attributes.

9. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 1, wherein the real-time score for each of the plurality of products is displayed in relation to a corresponding product.

10. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 1, wherein the plurality of products are ranked by a plurality of users and each of the plurality of users are members of at least on user group.

11. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 10, further comprising receiving rankings for each of the plurality of products from each of the users in a group.

12. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 11, further comprising generating a collaborative group ranking based on a collection of the product rankings from each of the users in the group.

13. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 12, further comprising publishing the collaborative group ranking for other members in other groups to utilize in making ranking determinations.

14. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment, the method comprising:

receiving attribute type ranking preferences;

receiving attribute filtering preferences;

generating a list of a plurality of products with a plurality of attributes, wherein the list is displayed in a user interface, and wherein the plurality of attributes are filtered based on the attribute filtering preferences;

receiving ranking indications for the plurality of attributes;

based on the ranking indications and the attribute type ranking preferences, calculating a weighted value for the plurality of attributes;

based on the calculated weighted value for the plurality of attributes, calculating a weighted value for each of the plurality of products; and

displaying, in real-time, the weighted values for each of the plurality of products.

15. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 14, wherein the attribute types comprise at least one of:

product color, product price, product warranty, product components, or product dimension attributes.

16. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 14, wherein the filtering preferences indicate which of the plurality of attribute are displayed to a consumer for receiving ranking indications.

17. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 14, wherein the attribute type ranking preferences indicate attributes a higher or lower weighted value of an attribute when calculating the weighted value of the corresponding plurality of products.

18. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 14, wherein the user interface includes a selection tool configured to enable or disable ranking capabilities within the user interface.

19. A method of assisting users in an ecommerce environment as in claim 14, wherein the ranking indications are used to populate a weighted

20. A computer-readable medium having sets of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive product ranking data from a first user group and a second user group for a plurality of products;

determine a hierarchical relationship between the first user group and the second user group, wherein the based on the hierarchal relationship the first user group is above the second user group in the hierarchy;

based on the hieratical relationship, weight the product ranking data of the first user group higher than that of the second user group;

generate a weighted collaborative ranking of the product ranking data based on the weighted product ranking data of the first and second user groups;

display the weighted collaborative rankings of the plurality of products.